Possum Fleet Needs A Skid Steer Loader

Looked at the skid steer in Millet.  (Love the VW for road trips, 40 liters of fuel, no big deal, not coming out of my bank account.)  The bobcat was both better and worse than I expected.  It had bigger tires than I expected for a 16hp bobcat, and the whole thing is bigger than other "small" bobcats.  I liked the size, but it came with extra weight, which I am not set up to haul at this point.

The bad is its potentially pre hydrostatic drive (invented in 1970).  Even worse than the skid steer chain clutches, which he says are brand new, it has the cursed CVT sled type belt clutch. We burn up enough belts just towing a dune buggy with another dune buggy, could you imagine pushing dirt all day?  Shure you never replaced the belt scooping cow shit out of the barn, but digging is a different story.

Even offering to let him keep his $1000 in new over priced Onan parts, and his pile of thick black grease covered engine parts,  he won't take $2000 for the bobcat chassis.  I can't believe he paid so much for virtually no motor parts at all, but he won't take less than $3000 for everything.

So it is looking like I might be building a bobcat, after the backhoe is finished.  It would just be a small unit, for snow removal and filling bigger trenches I do for underground cables.  It is either that, or I can go to the states and buy a small running skidsteer for about $3000, they seem to have too much value in Alberta, with all the acreages and money here.  In fact I constantly think I should get a big flat deck trailer capable of hauling 3 skidsteers, and haul 3 into Canada from the states.  That could make me $10,000 easily, but it would cost me $10,000 for the truck and trailer for sure, so first trip I don't make anything.  Plus I hate borrowing money in the first place